Function

Feature

Description

Administration

Access Logs

The system should log all access by CMS users, and be able to display these logs in report format.

Administration

Archive

The system should allow administrators to create a "snapshot" of all the pages on the site, which could then be used to archive a version of the site.

Administration

Usage Statistics - CMS

The system should be able to generate reports on usage of the CMS; e.g., how many new pages were posted in the previous month, or how many users logged on in the previous month.

Administration

Export

The system should support an export of content in an open standard format such as XML.

Administration

Monitoring

The system should supporting monitoring of the CMS.

Administration

Site Administration

The system should provide an interface for managing pages and assets.

Administration

Usage Statistics - Site

The system should be able to generate reports on usage statistics specific to a site; e.g., page-views in a given section, or submission rates for an online form.

Administration

Subsites

The system should support the deployment of subsidiary sites that share page templates and content management features.

Authoring

Add pages

The system must allow users to easily add new pages.

Authoring

Additional content features

Authors should be able to add such features as callout boxes and pull quotes to content. Non-technical staff would be able to drop such elements into a pre-built template within an article.

Authoring

Asset upload interface

Non-technical staff should be able to upload new images and other assets to the site and enter associated metadata as necessary.

Authoring

Configuration of editable/non-editable areas

The system should support the design and implementation of various page layouts.

Authoring

Constraint of WYSIWYG editing

The WYSIWYG editor should be customized to constrain authors to predefined styles and elements.

Authoring

Creation of content templates

Technical staff would be able to create and implement new content templates as necessary.

Authoring

Document Types

Every document should have a document type. Every document type should have an associated metadata schema indicating which metadata is required for the document type. It must be possible for these schema to evolve over time.

Authoring

HTML editing capabilities

The web interface for authoring content must also allow the insertion of arbitrary HTML code.

Authoring

Link Checker

The system should have a built-in tool for checking the a publication for broken internal and external links.

Authoring

Management of multiple file formats

The system must support management tools, including custom metadata schemes, for digital assets such as images, video files, etc.

Authoring

Move pages

The system must allow users to easily move pages from one location to another. The system should also support movement of a set of pages.

Authoring

Multiple page templates

The system must allow content authors to use a variety of templates defining different content areas on a new page. Technical staff must be able to produce and implement new templates, as needed, with limited server-side code.

Authoring

Multiple UI levels

The interface should have different levels of complexity which could be customized for a user or a role.

Authoring

Navigation

The system should provide tools to create the navigation and other structural elements of a site.

Authoring

Non-template pages

Technical staff must be able to create non-templated (e.g. flat HTML) pages for special circumstances.

Authoring

Preview

Content authors and system administrators should be able to preview all pages, and create and preview entire fully functional sections, before they go live.

Authoring

Simple authoring interface

The interface for authoring content should be simple enough for non-technical staff, but sophisticated enough to meet the needs of power users.

Authoring

Simple metadata interface

The interface for entering metadata for a piece of content should be simple and easy enough for non-technical staff to enter all required data.

Authoring

Subsites

The system should support authoring and publishing for subsidiary sies.

Authoring

Support for Unicode characters

The system should support the insertion and editing of content in multiple languages and character sets, including those with Unicode characters.

Authoring

Support for XHTML Strict

The system should support templates that validate as XHTML Strict.

Authoring

Web-based authoring and management

The tools for authoring content must be fully web-based, and should not require the installation of any special software.

Authoring

WYSIWYG editing

Demonstrate editing of pages using default editors, including successful validation and save.

Authoring

WYSIWYG editing

The web interface for authoring content should include a WYSIWYG editing interface, allowing non-technical staff to easily edit rich text content, including predefined CSS styles, and insert HTML elements such as images and links.

Collaboration

Document Control

The system should enforce version control of all shared documents.

Collaboration

Secure File Sharing

The system should allow users to add update, and delete files for access by other authorized users.

Collaboration

Wiki

The system should support a common work space for work groups.

Delivery

Friendly URIs

The system must support the creation of human-readable URLs for specific pages.

Delivery

Multiple content delivery channels

The system should support multiple options for content delivery, repurposing content for a text-only version, a printable version, etc. with eventual potential for delivery to cell phones, PDAs, etc. Ideally, the system could also export file formats such as PDF, MS Word, etc.

Delivery

Separation of content and presentation

The system should strike a good balance between full separation of content and presentation, and the ability of technical staff to tweak presentation elements as necessary for specific pieces of content.

Delivery

Site design

Every element visible on a public site should have the potential for a customized template, including dynamically generated lists and elements. Elements should be customizable with HTML code as well as custom CSS styles.

Delivery

Support for search engines

All content on the site should be able to be spidered by search engines from sites like Google and Yahoo, and indexed internally by third-party applications such as Verity.

Deployment

Delivery Applications

The system should be able to be deployed with different web or application servers.

Deployment

Installation

The system should be easily installed on common server platforms.

Deployment

Legacy URI

The system should support existing URI schemes and not require a migration for CMS deployment.

Deployment

Multiple web sites

The system should support the development of multiple websites with different domain names, templates, navigation, and branding. The sites will range in size, type of content, and amount of content.

Deployment

Scalability

The system should support scalable solutions for data storage and bandwidth for certain publications.

Deployment

Staging environment

Development of new applications, templates, etc. should happen in a staging or development environment not accessible to the public.

Deployment

Static/Dynamic delivery

The system should support both static (i.e., deliver existing content/pages) and dynamic (i.e., deliver content/pages in response to a request) delivery.

Integration

Content acquisition

The system should support the acquisition of content from external sources

Integration

Content migration

The system should facilitate the migration of content from existing sites, including HTML content, associated files such as images or documents, and metadata.

Integration

Databases

The system should be able to interface with any database, including Oracle, MYSQL, PostresSQL, and others.

Integration

Open standards

The system should use common or open standards, including XML and RSS.

Integration

Repository

The system should implement a content repository.

Internationalization

Multilingual

The system should support authoring and publishing in multiple languages.

Internationalization

Multilingual interface

The system should include a fully-translated interface for administration.

Internationalization

Multilingual interface

The system should include a fully-translated interface for content authoring.

Metadata

Aggregation

The system should support the creation of a list of content for a given metadata value, such as a region or topic, and display this list in a templatized format.

Metadata

Categorization

The system should support a single enterprise-wide classification scheme.

Metadata

Keywords

The system should support the use of additional keyword schemes to be defined by organizations.

Metadata

Language

Documents will need to be tagged with their language.

Metadata

Standards

The system should support open standards for metadata.

Performance

Caching and page delivery

Documents and content should be delivered to users quickly and efficiently. The system should ideally include intelligent caching, especially of high-access pages.

Reusability

Reusable components

The system should support the reuse of site designs and templates.

Search

Binary file formats

The search engine should be able to search common file formats such as PDFs and MS Word documents.

Search

Keywords

When a user views a document from a search, the keywords should be highlighted.

Search

Metadata

The results of a search should display metadata, such as title, description, and date.

Search

Multilingual search

The search engine should support the complexities of language necessary for meaningful search in multiple languages (e.g. multilingual Boolean operators, intelligent handling of non-English articles, etc).

Search

Search engine

The system must either include a robust, built-in search, or integrate fully with third-party search applications. In either case, the search engine must be able to search the full text and all metadata for all live content on a given site and return the results sorted by relevance.

Search

User sorting of results

A user should have the option of sorting results by date, relevance, and other criteria.

Security

Access control

The system should restrict access (view, read, write, publish) to particular pages and sections.

Security

Encryption

The system should support relatively high security standards, including support for SSL connections, strong encryption, etc.

Support

Developer training

Provide training on development using QWiPS and base technologies.

Support

End-user training

Provide training on QWiPS and its editors for authors and reviewers.

Templates

Page templates

The system should support page templates.

Usability

Ease of application development

Technical staff should be able to develop new applications and modules for a site as needed.

Users

Access control

Each user should have a role with permissions tied to specific sections of the system (i.e. read/write only within a section or specific page). An inherited permission structure would allow a user to edit all pages with that section, unless the permissions on a specific page were set otherwise by an administrator.

Users

Authentication

The system should support authentication and authorization of users.

Users

Creation of New Roles

Administrators should be able to create new roles with a new permission set within the system.

Users

Granularity

Permissions should be granular to at the page level.

Users

LDAP authentication

Ideally, the system could authenticate users against another authentication database, using secure communications and LDAP standards.

Users

Multiple User Roles

The system should support multiple roles within the authoring and site admin process, such as writer, editor, and administrator. Each role should have appropriate permissions to access administrative tools and perform administrative actions within the CMS.

Users

Roles

The system should support explicit roles for user authorization.

Workflow

Author/Reviewer cycle

The system should support a basic workflow scheme, in which all content must be approved before going publishing.

Workflow

Customization

The system would support the creation of customizable role-based workflow schemes for different subsites or content types.

Workflow

Email notification

Some events, e.g. content submitted for approval, should trigger an email notification to the appropriate editor or administrator.

Workflow

Logging

The system should log all workflow events.

Workflow

Revision

The system should maintain a revision history of each page, and allow an author to revert to any revision.

Workflow

Scheduling

The system should support scheduling of all workflow events.

Workflow

Undo

The system should support rollback of content to at least one previous version. The system would support rollback to any point in the history of a given piece of content.

Workflow

Version control

Basic version control, such as locking documents currently being edited, is required in the system.

Workflow

View content

The system should provide a view of one or all pieces of unpublished content, showing the current content status, so as to offer administrators an overview of all content currently in progress.

Workflow

Workflow engine

The system should support the definition and execution of workflow for authoring, reviewing, and publishing content.